Q: “Tom, I really appreciated your article about how many sets to do for building muscle. You mentioned ‘junk volume’ near the end. I kind of get what it means from the context, but could you explain it in more detail?”
A: Great question – and it’s one I get a lot whenever I write about training volume and suggest benefits of doing what seems like a large number of sets. The short answer is:
Junk volume is any extra training work in your weight training program that goes beyond your body’s ability to recover and build muscle.
While doing more sets can build more muscle up to a point (typically 10-20 sets per muscle per week), additional sets beyond that threshold don’t trigger extra muscle growth – they just burn more energy and cut into your recovery.
That’s when productive training volume becomes junk volume.
For the full explanation of why this happens and how to avoid turning your training into junk volume, read on.
Review: Number Of Sets And Dose-Response Relationship With Muscle Gains
In my previous article, I explained that more sets can build more muscle, but only up to a point. That’s why most research shows a clear “dose-response” relationship between volume and muscle growth.
10 to 20 hard sets per muscle per week is usually the sweet spot for maximum gains. That’s a big range. To narrow it down, understand that for most people, the practical volume is in the lower end of that range, not the higher end.
It’s usually only advanced bodybuilders with good genetics and great recovery capacity who do 15 to 20 sets per muscle per week (or more).
The “up to a point” part is key. More sets don’t automatically mean more progress. At a certain point, the extra sets stop stimulating growth and start cutting into your recovery. That’s when the extra work turns into what lifters call junk volume.
Junk Volume Definition: When Extra Sets Stop Working
In bodybuilding culture, the term “junk volume” refers to any extra training that adds fatigue without adding meaningful muscle-building stimulus.
Junk volume is the part of your workout that feels productive because you’re doing more, but physiologically, your muscles have already received the growth signal they need.
All the extra sets don’t trigger additional hypertrophy – they just burn more energy and eat into recovery resources like glycogen, sleep quality, and joint or connective-tissue health.
Think of it like this:
If the first few hard sets of squats give you 90% of your growth stimulus, the fifth or sixth set might give you only a few percent more – if any.
Keep piling on more sets, and eventually you hit the flat part of the curve where you’re just spinning your wheels. Go further, and you might even dig yourself into a recovery rut.
What Does Research Say About Junk Volume?
Although “junk volume” isn’t an official scientific term you’ll find in research papers, the concept is clearly recognized in the hypertrophy literature.
Studies consistently show a dose–response relationship between training volume and muscle growth – up to a point. Beyond that point, extra sets deliver little or no additional benefit.
For example, Schoenfeld et al found that hypertrophy increases with training volume but plateaus after a certain threshold.
Baz-Valle et al reported no significant difference in muscle growth between moderate (12–20 sets per week) and high (>20 sets) volumes for some muscle groups, suggesting a ceiling effect.
And Pelland et al quantified this same relationship, showing that as weekly set volume rises, the rate of growth slows dramatically.
In other words, scientists describe “diminishing returns from excessive volume” – while coaches and lifters simply call it “junk volume.” Different language, same proven concept.
How Junk Volume Happens (And How To Avoid It)
Here are some common ways I see lifters accumulate junk volume:
Too many total sets per week.
This is the main culprit: You keep adding more work, thinking more sets automatically mean more gains. For a while, that works – until it doesn’t.
Everyone has an individual ceiling for productive volume, and when you exceed it, recovery starts to fall behind adaptation. The result? Fatigue rises, performance drops, and those extra sets stop building muscle and start digging a recovery hole.
Sets done too far from failure.
This is a type of junk volume that can affect you even if you don’t do a lot of sets. It’s not about too much volume – it’s about too little intensity.
Warm-up sets or stopping four or five reps shy of failure simply don’t provide enough stimulus to count as “effective” sets. You’re adding time and fatigue without the tension needed for growth.
Basically, sets where you don’t work hard enough are junk that wasted your time.
Mindless accessory work.
Many lifters tack on isolation movements at the end of a workout just to “finish off” a muscle. But if your main lifts already trained that muscle hard, too many extra curls, flyes, or extensions may do little more than duplicate the stimulus you already got.
You end up adding fatigue, not growth. Accessory work should serve a purpose – not fill time.
No deloads or periodization.
Even well-planned volume can turn into junk if you never back off. Running high-volume training indefinitely keeps your fatigue elevated and your performance suppressed.
Planned deloads and periodized training cycles let you resensitize to volume, recover fully, and come back stronger. Without them, even good training eventually becomes too much of a good thing.
How to Tell If You’re Doing Too Much (Signs Of Junk Volume)
The main signs of junk volume are subtle at first:
Your progress stalls despite more time in the gym.
You feel fatigued or sore all the time.
Strength numbers plateau or even decline.
Motivation drops even though you’re training “hard.”
When these things happen, it’s a strong signal that you’re just doing more than your body can recover from.
You’ll notice that these are some of the same symptoms that show up under the labels of “over-reaching” and “over-training.” (The classic primary symptom of overtraining is not just a plateau – everyone hits plateaus – but when your strength is going down despite training hard).
If you ignore the initial signs, the consequence is not so subtle: You start getting overuse injuries.
How To Avoid Junk Volume
Start by asking: “Which sets are actually making me grow?” The answer: the ones that are:
Challenging enough (within 1–2 reps of failure), in the right rep range (mostly 6–20)
Hitting acknowledged minimum benchmarks (approximately 10 sets per muscle per week).
Done with sufficient load and intent.
Everything else is filler…. Junk.
I recommend:
Keep your weekly sets per muscle between 10 and 20 most of the time.
Track your recovery: if performance drops and you feel beat up, scale back.
Focus on quality of effort over quantity of sets.
Periodize your volume: build up gradually, then deload at regular intervals or when you start feeling fatigued (auto-regulation).
The Bottom Line
Dropping the junk volume doesn’t mean you’re being lazy – it means you’re being efficient.
I’d rather see you do 10 high-quality, focused sets per muscle per week and grow than grind through 20 half-hearted sets and stall out.
Remember: The goal isn’t to do as much as you can handle.
The goal is to do as little as necessary to get the maximum results.
That’s smart training, and it’s how you avoid turning productive work into junk.
One final thought: I wouldn’t be surprised if “junk volume” becomes one of those bodybuilder slang terms that eventually makes its way into the scientific literature.
The same thing happened with “body recomposition” – a phrase bodybuilders used for decades before researchers started publishing studies under that name. Don’t be surprised if junk volume eventually earns the same distinction.
This isn’t bro-science – it’s a real-world concept worth understanding, and one that could make the difference between training harder and burning out, or training smarter and actually growing.
Scientific References
Schoenfeld, B et al, Resistance training volume enhances muscle hypertrophy but not strength in trained men, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 51(1), 94–103, 2018.
Baz-Valle, E et al, The effects of resistance training volume on muscle hypertrophy: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Journal of Sports Sciences, 40(10), 1113–1122, 2022.
Pelland, J et al, The resistance training dose–response: Meta-regressions exploring the effects of weekly volume and frequency on muscle hypertrophy and strength gain, Sports Medicine, 54(2), 237–258, 2024.
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